Parking

CARLSBAD, Calif. - The Legoland Hotel, which opened April 5, got plenty of little things wrong in its first weeks. But its designers got one thing enormously right, and that will make this place a screaming success: kid-centricity. "The dragon is made out of Legos!" my daughter, Grace, who is about to turn 9, said as we approached the hotel entrance a week after the opening. Inside the lobby, Grace; my wife, Mary Frances; and I found a faux fountain, a play pit full of little plastic bricks and dozens of deeply absorbed children who were collaborating on a rainbow-hued monolith, constructing pretend weapons, hollering, whispering, running, jumping and dragging their parents from one discovery to the next.

The jockey colony at Hollywood Park might want to break out a bottle of champagne to celebrate the absence of Rafael Bejarano next week when he leaves town to ride Midnight Lucky in the Kentucky Oaks and Overanalyze in the Kentucky Derby. That means somebody else will get a chance to ride a winner. The red-hot Bejarano won four races in four mounts Friday. Then, on California Gold Rush Day on Saturday, he won three of the four richest stakes, including the $300,000 Snow Chief Stakes aboard Surfcup for trainer Bob Baffert.

He was a smooth-talking swindler who operated Orange County's most notorious and lucrative strip club, the Mustang Topless Theater. Born James Stockwell, he rebranded himself Jimmy Casino and lived the extravagant lifestyle of a character from an Elmore Leonard novel. Expensive cowboy couture. Luxury cars. Enemies who wanted him dead. After years of staying a step ahead of the law and the people whom he owed money, Casino, 48, was ambushed at his Buena Park condo Jan. 2, 1987.

Powering down The San Diego Padres moved in the outfield fences this season, a nod to hitters frustrated when a home run anywhere else would be an out at Petco Park. In the Padres' first 10 home games, three balls that would have been outs last season went for home runs. "All for the other guys," Padres Manager Bud Black said. It's been that kind of start for the Padres, whose record through Friday was worse than any team other than the losing-by-design Houston Astros and Miami Marlins.

There's magic afoot in Orange County that has nothing to do with a giant mouse or a legendary berry farm and everything to do with George Esquivel and his band of craftsmen who, for more than a decade, have been hand-cobbling high-end shoes for a who's who of the well-heeled, including rock stars, NBA players, politicians and Hollywood heavyweights of every stripe. In a nondescript building off I-5 in Buena Park, pieces of white leather destined to become booties for singer Janelle Monae are being meticulously hand-stitched at one table.

A special task force of fire, police and federal agencies is investigating a church fire that erupted early Friday at a Leimert Park church. The fire was reported before 2 a.m. at Bethesda Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith on Crenshaw Boulevard. Flames tore through the church windows, and plumes of black smoke climbed into the night sky. Witnesses said they could see the flames up to three miles away. Firefighters were on the scene within four minutes of the first call, said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt.

Marianne Blend learned she was in trouble about three weeks ago when she looked out the window of her Highland Park home and saw strangers placing a large sign in her frontyard. "They were two big men, so I didn't go out there until they were gone," said the 78-year-old widow. "But when I did go out and looked at it, I couldn't believe it. " The sign announced that her 92-year-old clapboard cottage was being sold in a Superior Court probate auction scheduled for Saturday. For Blend, it was stunning news.

Disneyland's Space Mountain remains closed for safety repair work, two weeks after state regulators cited the park for hazards to workers who maintain and repair the attraction. Disney officials, who said they have no estimate on when the ride will reopen, closed Space Mountain and two other rides April 13, after receiving the state citations. The other rides, Soarin' Over California at Disney's California Adventure Park and the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, have reopened. State safety inspectors scrutinized the rides after a maintenance worker was injured in November from a fall he suffered while cleaning the outside of the Space Mountain building.

During a honeymoon trip to Los Angeles, Chris Hansen and his new wife, Shoni, decided not to skimp on their visit to Universal Studios Hollywood. They booked a pricey tour for the theme park that included a buffet lunch, an escort to the front of the line of every ride and a behind-the-scene visit to the property and wardrobe departments on the studio's television and movie lot. The experience set the couple back $299 each, compared with the regular $80 admission price. But they didn't complain.

Betfair Hollywood Park begins what could be its final 49-day spring-summer meeting Thursday. The California Horse Racing Board is scheduled to move forward on 2014 racing dates at its next meeting on May 23 in Sacramento, even though Hollywood Park has not publicly stated whether the track will shut down at the end of this year. Jack Liebau, president of Hollywood Park, said last week that people seem to be assuming the Inglewood track will not have racing next year. "They may be right; they may be wrong," he said.